What’s In A Name: The Rationale Behind “Ami”

What’s in a name? Names provide context, and they make us more than just humans – they are the cornerstone of our identity, and they’re how we introduce ourselves. Not as a human but as a person with a name and an identity. Names signify us as individuals, so why shouldn’t the same apply for AI? It would be wrong to call Ami just an AI or a Chatbot, when these words mean so many different things. Contrary to what Shakespeare said, a rose by any other name would not be as sweet.

Why did we decide on calling Ami “Ami” then? Well, Ami has her own personality and her own intelligence, so she needed a name. We needed a short, sweet, and altogether meaningful name, that would signal who Ami is and what Ami is about. We settled on Ami as its an acronym for Artificial Machine Intelligence. The Renaissance playwright Ben Jonson once wrote “there is a woundy luck in names”[1]; we did some research and found out that Ami means “buddy” in French, and, well, it couldn’t have been a more perfect fit – Ami’s job is to provide personal attention to every one of her client’s website visitors – Ami is their buddy.

Why do we refer to it as “her”? Phonetically, Ami sounds like “Amy”, a traditionally female name, and assigning Ami with gender-pronouns makes her more human than just referring to her as “it”. When clients start working with Ami, it’s Ami’s first day at work. Ami has the intelligence to make her own decisions; she’s not just a tool or a piece of code, she’s a core part of the team.

Humanising and naming Ami makes it easier for people to understand her and what she is used for, and we hope you enjoy working with her too. To find out more about Ami, you can read more here.